'Sign Of Autocratic Leader': TN BJP Chief Hits Out At CM Stalin Over Arrest Of Party's State Secretary

Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai condemned state secretary SG Suryah's arrest and hit out at Chief Minister MK Stalin, calling it a misuse of state machinery to curtail free speech.

Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai ( Image Source :Twitter/@annamalai_k )

BJP state secretary SG Suryah was on Friday arrested by the Madurai district cyber crime police in Chennai in connection with his recent tweet on Madurai MP Su Venkatesan. Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai hit out at Chief Minister MK Stalin over the arrest alleging misuse of state machinery to curtail free speech. While condemning the arrest, Annamalai defended Suryah by saying that "his only mistake was that he exposed the nasty double standards of the communists, allies of DMK." 

Annamalai took to Twitter to say, "Using state machinery to curtail free speech and getting jittery for the slightest criticism is unbecoming of a democratically elected leader and, indeed, are signs of an autocratic leader in the making."

"The arrest of BJP state secretary SG Suryah is highly condemnable. His only mistake was to expose the nasty double standards of the communists, allies of DMK...These arrests will not deter us & we will continue to be bearers of the uncomfortable truth," tweets Tamil Nadu BJP… pic.twitter.com/Updy95gpkv

— ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2023

He further continued his attack on Stalin and said, "Drawing inspiration from autocrats, TN CM Thiru MK Stalin is turning the state into a lawless jungle."

Annamalai in his tweet added that such arrests won't deter his party and they will continue to be bearers of the "uncomfortable truth."

SG Suryah's Attack On DMK MP

In the tweet, Suryahh had accused MP Venkatesan of not taking adequate action following the death of a hygiene worker after he was made to clean a drain filled with feces despite manual scavenging being prohibited by law. Suryah wrote a letter to the MP in which he strongly criticised the incident.

“Your fake politics of separatism stinks worse than that cesspool, find a way to live as a human being, mate!” tweeted Suryahh, attaching the letter.

In his letter, Suryahh lashed out at Viswanathan for his "double standards", for allegedly forcing the deceased sanitation worker to resort to manual scavenging despite being aware that it is prohibited by law, news agency ANI reported.